PEI Temporarily Closed Charlottetown Schools Amid “Worrisome” Student Outbreak | The Canadian News

Prince Edward Island will temporarily cancel face-to-face classes at Charlottetown schools, following the province’s first outbreak of COVID-19 in a school setting.

PEI’s health director, Dr. Heather Morrison, made the announcement along with Prime Minister Dennis King at an abruptly staged press conference Sunday afternoon.

“We have a serious situation with the transmission of COVID-19 in PEI,” Morrison said.

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On Friday, a case was announced at West Royalty Elementary School. By Sunday, Morrison said six additional cases had been confirmed in the province, all in young people under the age of 19.

Four of the new cases are related to the West Royalty case, one is a student at Charlottetown Rural High School and the last is a close contact from a previously announced case.

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Morrison said that 10 of the last 11 COVID-19 cases have been among children. All but one of these cases are among those who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated, in other words, children under 12 years of age.

None of the children who tested positive are in the hospital.

“This is a worrying and evolving situation,” he said. “Our investigation of these cases continues with the search for contacts and ongoing evidence as we speak.”

Close contacts are being identified and will need to be tested and isolated. Morrison said there are currently 50 close contacts identified and “the list continues to grow.”

“I hope we have more cases in the next few days.”

Morrison added that investigators have not been able to link the cases to travel outside of the province, and until they do, they are considering community transmission and are assuming the new cases are the Delta variant.

“We know that COVID-19, including the Delta variant, looks for groups of people who are not vaccinated and that is what we are experiencing,” he said.

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In-person classes at West Royalty Elementary were canceled for next week, while classes will be canceled for the next three days at 17 other schools in the area to allow for contact tracing and testing.

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By the middle of this week, all other schools in the province will adopt “high risk level” measures, as outlined in the province’s back-to-school plan. That means cohorts in K-6 schools and more cleanliness and distancing.

Additionally, extracurricular activities for students in the Charlottetown area will be suspended for three days.

The early childhood centers will remain open.

Morrison said he knew this was not the news people wanted to hear, and while he expected cases to occur in schools, this was earlier in the school year than anticipated.

“I am concerned that we do not know the extent of COVID transmission in PEI”

Premier King “strongly encouraged” employers to be flexible and allow parents and guardians of affected schools to work from home if possible. Otherwise, King said there would be government programs for families who need to stay home, and said more details would be released on Monday.

There are 14 active infections in the province. 92% of the eligible population has received at least one dose of a vaccine and 83.1% are fully vaccinated.


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